The Virtues of Short Story Collections: A Forgotten Middle Child of Literary Genre, a guest post by Josh Allen

“I’ll tell you what I hate about being the middle child. It’s like I’m invisible.”

These are the words of Austin, one of the main characters in my upcoming short story collection with Sarah J. Coleman, Once They See You: 13 Stories to Shiver and Shock.

Austin’s problem is that he has a cool older brother and an adorable younger sister, and in the midst of his siblings’ seemingly endless milestones, he’s just . . . himself.

Austin the Unheard. Austin the Unseen.

Invisible.

As a middle child myself, I know what it’s like to feel invisible.

And in today’s publishing landscape, as the author of three short story collections, I know what it’s like to feel creatively and professionally invisible too. 

Because let’s face it. In today’s literary universe, the novel reigns supreme. Novels are, and have been for ages, the favorite child in the literary family. Novels, it seems, get to eat the last piece of cake, get to stay out late with their friends, get to ride up front in the passenger seat next to Mom. Short story collections, on the other hand, seem to be one of those forgotten middle children of the literary family. Short story collections have to wash the empty cake pan, have to go to bed on time, have to sit in the back of the old family Buick, sandwiched there between historical nonfiction and novels-in-verse.

And that’s too bad.

Because short story collections have a lot to offer young readers—especially the kinds of readers that are emerging in 2024.

For one thing, unlike novels, short story collections empower kids to control how they read.

Consider, for example, this table of contents from my copy of the novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. 

This table of contents reads like an itinerary that must be followed. It’s a rigorous roadmap. A checklist. A set of marching orders. 

Contrast this with the table of contents from my first book of short stories, Out to Get You: 13 Tales of Weirdness and Woe. 

What we see here isn’t an itinerary. It’s more of a travel guide. Or a menu. There’s no need to read a short story collection linearly or even all the way through, so kids can use this table of contents to skip ahead, go back, skim around. They can decide a story is too long and hop over it.

What’s more, when reading short story collections, kids can abandon a story halfway through without abandoning the entire book.

What I’m saying is that short story collections let kids navigate books according to their preferences. And this freedom removes the sense of failure some kids feel when they can’t make it through a novel. 

It’s like this: When a kid abandons a short story collection, that kid didn’t fail to finish the book. They just read as much as they wanted and moved on. And since they did read maybe three stories or five or nine—all with distinct beginnings, middles, and ends—they likely built up their reading confidence along the way. And learned a thing or two about how stories work.

Here’s another powerful reason to put short story collections—that invisible middle child—into the hands of today’s kiddos:

Short story collections mimic the kinds of media today’s kids are just crazy about.

Consider the media behemoths dominating the landscape in today’s adolescent world.

YouTube, Instagram, TikTok.

Obviously, a lot of kids in 2024 consume media in bite-sized pieces. Today’s kids are intimately familiar with stories that offer them quick hooks, tidy developments, and bursty payoffs.

So maybe one way to win young people over to reading is to give them books that resemble the media they’re already so comfortable with. Maybe it just makes sense to give people who’ve been raised on so much short-form entertainment short-form literature.

Of course, I’m not saying we should abandon the good fight to turn kids into the kind of readers who can confidently gobble up 400-page novels. What I am saying is that in an age when technology seems to be shrinking adolescent attention spans, we may need to lean into short forms a bit more to meet kids where they are and to ease them gently into becoming the kind of readers we want them to be.

TikTok and Instagram and YouTube aren’t going away. For the foreseeable future, bite-sized media will be a part—a large part—of young people’s lives.

So maybe it’s time for those of us intent on helping young people become avidly literate to tap into the power of short forms—bite-sized literary bursts that can hook kiddos on books.

With these things in mind, the short story collection—this invisible middle child—seems to have a lot to offer. Not only do short story collections empower kids to control how they read, but they also have much in common with the kinds of media today’s kids crave.

So maybe, just maybe, we should let this middle child ride up front for a while.

Meet the author

Josh Allen checks under his bed before switching off the light each night. During the day, he teaches creative writing and literature at Brigham Young University—Idaho. He’s the author of three short story collections: Out to Get You: 13 Tales of Weirdness and Woe; Only If You Dare: 13 Stories of Darkness and Doom; and Once They See You: 13 Stories to Shiver and Shock. His writing has received praise from The Wall Street Journal, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, The Horn Book, and more. All three of his books feature glow-in-the-dark covers and staggeringly spooky illustrations by the award-winning artist Sarah J. Coleman. Josh lives in Idaho with his family. 

Website: https://joshallenwriter.com/

Instagram: @justjoshallen

Twitter/X: @justjoshallen

About Once They See You: 13 Stories to Shiver and Shock

There’s no escaping these deliciously creepy tales of everyday horror, perfect for fans of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Once you open this book, you’re doomed . . . Cursed to stay up late, savoring every line of these terrifying stories. Go ahead and try to resist. The Night Things won’t let you get far.

Master storyteller Josh Allen, hailed as the “heir-apparent to Alvin Schwartz,” brings thirteen nightmare scenarios to life in this page-turning collection. From a shiny abandoned bike, to an innocent classroom icebreaker, to a piano recital that requires unusual sacrifices, there’s no end to the shocking twists on everyday reality.

In Allen’s wondrous world, which looks an awful like our own, danger waits behind every doorway . . . even in the most ordinary places. Kids eager for age-appropriate horror will relish every thrill and chill.

Eerie illustrations by award-winning artist Sarah Coleman accompany the stories, packaged in a stunning hardcover edition complete with a glow-in-the-dark jacket. Readers will sleep with one eye open!

Don’t miss the author and illustrator’s other creepy collections: Out to Get You and Only If You Dare.

ISBN-13: 9780823456321
Publisher: Holiday House
Publication date: 08/20/2024
Age Range: 9 – 12 Years

Filed under: Guest Post